Karla's Cottage

A Lovely Day with Friends

Last week, I drove to Indiana for my 45th reunion and some sister time.  On the way, I stopped for a birthday party craft day for a dear friend.

Not only was it a fun day with buddies, great food (and pink cake!), plus making a sweet project, it was also a pleasant way to break up the trip.

The drive is about nine hours with stops, but I split it into two days starting with this gala get together.

Crafting pretty pumpkins, laughing with gal pals, and having a fancy luncheon was a perfect start for my day of travel.  I drove to two of my favorite antique malls after saying goodbye to friends, then a few hours further til it was time to take myself out for a crunchy, fried chicken dinner and grab some sleep at a Holiday Inn Express.

Too bad all days on the road aren’t that much fun.

These are the little gifts I wrapped up for the party goers.

Thanks again for the festive start to my vacation, Birthday Girl!

And thanks for sharing your big day with us.

A framed stained glass mosaic by Shanna- Thanks, Shan!

This lovely surprise was created by my good friend and Artist, Shanna Wagner.  I love everything she makes, but this one is even more wonderful because it is jam packed with meaning.

I can just picture his reaction, if he’d seen this.  He had an appreciation for artwork.  And for kind people.

The heart in the center is a fused piece she made in her kiln.

It is surrounded by roses, iris,  hydrangeas,

and two bluebirds of happiness!

It was made to fit this antique frame, that is just perfectly wonderful itself.

And it is created to hang either in a window to let the sunlight through, or on a wall, with lights behind it.

Ryan loved red roses and purple iris.  Funny, I’d known him forty years before I knew how much he enjoyed flowers.  We’d stop to look at them along our walks.  There were iris growing by the pond we liked to circle, over and over, and he commented every time when the purple iris were in bloom.

There was so much I learned about my boy in his last few years, I wonder what else I’d have discovered if I had more time with him?

Shan isn’t just generous with her art, she is with her time, home, and materials too.  She invites friends into her studio weekly to have a mosaic day.  Here is my piece in progress.

I saved the vases that flowers were delivered to us in after Ry Guy died.  I hope to cover them all in mosaic glass to use throughout our home and his apartment.  And I know that he would have said, “Wow, Mom, that is cool!”

While there is much I will never get to discover about him, I love it that I know enough to hear his voice in my head, picturing what I know he would say to me about something like these mosaics.

 

A memory book

When Ryan died, I cut up a canvas that hung on a wall of his apartment and turned it into a book cover.  Filling the pages of that book meant weeks of happy memories as I sorted through photos and wrote down stories.

There were also many slow tears dropped onto the paper.

And other times when the sobbing was so hard, I found myself needing to lay down on the cement floor of the studio, in the bits and pieces of fallen scraps and trimmings.

That photo album has become a treasured piece for me.

 Since crafting his book, two close friends lost family members too, and I made books for them.

And this week, I put together this album for another friend’s birthday.  

She lost her mom a couple years ago.  At that time, I wasn’t making these memorials, but after seeing their meaningfulness, I wanted her to have one.

Each book that I build is a mix of photos (usually taken from Facebook), blank pages to add more pictures later, note paper to write on, with pockets and envelopes to store tokens and trinkets.

I try to use colors and styles of paper that I know my friend will like.  



And each has some doodling type artwork inside.

Mostly simple flowers, vines, or other small sketches.

And each becomes, almost a meditation for me as I assemble it.

I take time to think about the people in the photos, and feel their happiness and their loss.

Constructing these books has been good for me, an exercise in caring and time to lose myself in being creative.

Sadly, I have one more to make, and wish that there wasn’t a reason to need another one.

But since there is, I hope that the art journal can bring some comfort.

 

 

 

Birthday goodness

With puppies coming on my birthday, I have been completely absorbed in furry, cuddly fun.  And I forgot to show a couple of beautiful birthday gifts that I was honored to get.   I have a painting from Clover, that I am calling, “Our Lady of the Swans” and have her displayed with the Swans from Lesa’s class at our last arty gathering here before the pandemic struck.

The teeny swan was an adornment on top of this overflowing box of delight from my pal, Angie.

Not only is the old, glass box beautiful with its vintage ribbon and silk rose trim, it is filled with timeless treasures.

See what I mean?  Filled to the brim with lovely packages, too pretty to open (but I did!)

There were layers of Good Stuff supplies inside that I can’t wait to use, but haven’t yet due to my fuzzy, little friends.

I did pull out some of the frothy, lace hankies to show off on a couple puppies.  
This tiny, black pup took on an RBG vibe, didn’t she?

And Miss Daisy looks like a doll baby.

Speaking of dolls, my sweet grand fairy, Clover was so thoughtful to share her artwork with me.  That kid has skills!

Before I know it, my time with the babies will be gone and I’ll have plenty of time for crafting.  It will be heart wrenching to see them go, so it is helpful to have such delicious goodies to delve into once they are gone, to take my mind off missing them.

 

 

 

Road Trippin’ with Junkin’ and Craftin’

My friend, Angie, invited Beth and I to visit the old farmhouse her grandma lived in.

She and her mom have been restoring it for years.  

It’s a great mix of original pieces and beloved collections. (Angie had the very old, still functioning fridge stocked with deliciousness for us)

The drive south was as much fun as the staycation itself.  We hit every thrift store between Lawrence and Chanute.

And got photos of the most unique offerings.  

While making some friends along the way.

And eating some of the freshest home cooking you could ever be lucky enough to find at a roadside cafe.

At one stop, there were baskets of $1 packets of old lace. I bought more than my fair share, but couldn’t stop thinking about them so stopped on the way home to buy more.

Beth happened to bring craft supplies too, and shared her 1800s era quilt pieces for us to embellish with some things we found along the way.

Impromptu creations made with just what you have with you can be an inspiring challenge.  We all managed to get a few pretties done.

But mostly we just laughed. And then laughed some more. Then we ate and drank wine and did more laughing.

It was perfect!

 

 

Appreciating Something Normal

We had company!  Our friends are now vaccinated and we celebrated together with a pitch in BUFFET style meal!

No more fixing an individual plate for each person, we actually all stood NEAR each other, WITHOUT masks, INDOORS, and fixed our plates.

Then, why does my dining room look so empty?  Well, for one thing, we were so busy catching up, then pour painting that I didn’t remember to take photos of the group.  

Another reason is that, I was excited to have a reason to clean my house and took pictures before people came over.

During the first half of quarentine, I found myself organizing and cleaning a lot.  My drawers and closets were impeccable.  

But after a while of no one coming inside, I kind of let things become sloppy around the edges.  It was very nice to have a reason to care about how things looked again.

Also, there are still reminders of the pandemic everywhere.  Such as having a new dishwasher on back order for  six months.  

But you know what?  That doesn’t phase me at all.  That might have been something that would piss me off pre-pandemic or at least be something to whine about.  But now? Small potatoes!  I had my friends coming over, and things like dishwasher delivery being delayed is not the sort of thing to upset me after what 2020 delivered to the world.

Instead of having a sit down dinner with a set table, we filled our paper plates and went outside to enjoy a beautiful, spring day.

My goal is to appreciate what I have, not complain about what I don’t.  We have all lost so much.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A memorial journal for Judy

A very close, supportive, and caring friend recently lost her mother. 

She had been there for me when my Ryan died, and had a suggestion that helped me tremendously to cope with not having him by my side.

Her suggestion was to write to him.  And I did, repeatedly.
 

Long, tear stained letters.

Quick funny notes about something that had happened and I knew that he’d enjoy laughing at with me.

A jotted down memory.

Stories of what I’d done that day, or how many steps I got, what we had for dinner.

A simple, “I miss you.”

Maybe writing to her mother could help my friend with her own grief.  So I made a book for that holds pockets and envelopes to place writings or mementos, little stacks of note paper, pages to write in or add photos to.

The book is a planner from Michaels that had mostly blank pages, but also some printed ones with prompts for journaling.  On this page, I wrote words about Judy that her daughter used when talking about her in a memorial she had written about her love of family.

I printed the paragraphs out and placed them in the book too.

Then I found Facebook photos to print and added a few to some pages.  Not too many, the book is mostly blank for her to use as she’d like.

My friend is a stained glass artist with a bright, bohemian style, so I tried to make the journal in cheerful colors she would like.

The front cover is one of my pour paintings, cut up and glued on.

After seeing how kind everyone was to me after my son died, I pledged to be a better friend.  Honestly, there is nothing anyone can do to make things better when you lose a loved one.  But showing that they care and reaching out does ease the pain.  So I wanted to do this for my pal, and I hope that writing to her mom helps her get through this.

In a painting frame of mind

Lately, I’ve been getting some furniture painted.  I’ve enjoyed it so much, that I am considering painting some pieces to frame too.  I hope I get around to that.

A “painting with thread” project got started too.  Those are drawn on a shirt with washable marker to start with, and the marker is more of a guideline than anything else.  I liked this sketch, so will try to follow it.  Sometimes things change a lot once I get started.

Here is a photo of the dresser, not all the way before, but near the beginning.  It is in Angie’s booth at Good JuJu and we went in there one afternoon while the building was empty for me to paint while Beth and Angie redid their neighboring spaces.

It had been a while since I’d added roses to furniture.  I had planned something completely different, but this is how it turned out.  

 

 

Kindnesses sparked redos

While my friends and I have gotten to be pretty good at meeting up for walks, socially distant porch parties, and other safe activities where we can visit in ventilated places somewhat apart from each other, we haven’t figured out how to do a Mosaic Day together.

We used to gather most Thursdays in Shan’s basement studio, catch up on each other’s happenings, and glue glass bits from the vast bins of colors Shanna had for us to dig through, onto all sorts of items.

Over a year ago, I started this pot, and since I couldn’t make it there every week, or sometimes brought a pressing work project from home instead, it took a long time to progress.  But just as I was getting excited about completion, Covid hit and all production halted.

Then recently, my sweet and talented friend offered finish the pot for me and I was thrilled!  My design was done, the background and grout were all that was left, and she was going to help with the grout anyway.  
Plus, this way, I could call the pot a collaboration with a master stain glass artist!

(See the stunning piece hanging behind her? Also, please notice the beautiful doodle, one of Sugar’s babies, Shan’s home is full of pretty creations.)

How generous of her to do this for me.

When Ryan died, we received a planter jam packed with greenery.  It has been a couple of months now, and while I’m slightly sure I could’ve kept them alive as is, I  was relieved to have something larger to transplant them into.

While I was at it, I repotted some other plants and spread the arrangement into some extra pots too.

Then, while picking up supplies at Hobby Lobby, I saw these blue coffee pots on clearance and got one to go along with the refreshing of the kitchen I’d started with the new plantings.

Cheerful, right?

And cheery is very much appreciated right now.  Missing Ryan is a constant with me, and I know always will be.  I write notes to him, talk to him on my walks, sit in the gazebo and listen to his wind chimes.  I think of all the boring little details in my life that he would have listened to me telling him about.  And how he honestly would be interested in hearing them.

For the first few weeks, it seemed like we had so much going on, kids to entertain and feed, places to go, chores to do, projects to work on. Dinners to cook, shopping to do.  I complained to myself that I just wanted to be left alone.  

That I wanted to crawl into bed and not get out.

That I wanted to be alone to be sad and not do anything at all. 

Looking back, I wonder if I was doing it right all along, by just keeping going.  Not just keeping busy, but being active and part of the world around me.  Which isn’t easy to do in the Age of Corona. And it isn’t easy to do when I am sad.  But for me, it probably was the best thing I could do.

Heart break will always be with me.  But it also makes me realize that the good that surrounds me might not always be with with me.  I work to treasure my blessings, appreciate what I have, and to keep my home as much of a pretty, and peaceful sanctuary as I can.  To reach out to friends and family that I love.  

To not curl up in the darkness.

 

 

 

Social Distancing Socializing

While most of the last few weeks were spent on little projects around the house, big ones around the yard, and tasty ones in the kitchen, I have also done a lot of walking.
Ryan and I walk around the neighborhood a lot anyway, but for a change of pace, we have been driving to local trails for our outings.  
It has been such a nice break for us, that I asked friends if they wanted to meet up for walks too.

The Other Karla, Beth, and Angie all live about 45 minutes away, but since I had doctor appointments to go to in Kansas City, near them, that was just fine.

Who am I kidding?  I’d drive hours to hang out with friends for a nice walk! Chit chatting and strolling through a park is better medicine than seeing any doctor!

 On one trip, we got to watch a wedding.  Another group of walkers was on the other side of the pond watching also, and after the kiss, we all applauded.

I have enjoyed our walks so much, that I wondered out loud if in the future, we were going to become friends who meet for walks instead of meeting for lunch.

Possibly... but we will be meeting for estate sales, and thrifting, that will never change!